11:07 PM, March 11, 2014

Detroit Free Press Sports Writer

Moving the ball from one end of the Ferndale gymnasium to the other was a bit more difficult Tuesday night than it had been at any time this season for the Romulus girls basketball team.

OK, it was a nightmare.

Fifteen times in the first quarter, Farmington Hills Mercy forced a Romulus turnover. That is almost two a minute.

How does that happen in a quarterfinal game?

“We try to get everywhere,” Mercy’s Allie Gorcyca said. “We try to be maniacs on the floor. We just want the ball back.”

The Marlins got the ball back. Repeatedly. In all, Mercy forced 36 turnovers, and most of the second half was played with a running clock.

Did Mercy have seven players on the court? That must be it.

“Some would say that,” Gorcyca said, laughing, “but we only had five.”

Mercy jumped on Romulus early, and the Marlins never took their foot off the gas as they recorded a 64-27 victory in a Class A quarterfinal.

Mercy will meet Birmingham Marian for a fourth time this season Friday in the 2:50 p.m. semifinal at the Breslin Center. Marian won the first game, but Mercy won the final two, including the Catholic League tournament championship.

After three games, the cumulative score between the teams is 149-149.

No. 4 Mercy (25-1) scored eight of the first nine points as Romulus (21-5) committed seven turnovers on its first eight possessions. After the Eagles hit a basket, Mercy scored the next six points and led, 21-7, after the first quarter.

“Coach told us he wanted us to come out on a good start, and that’s what we did,” said Mercy junior Taylor Jones, who scored 18 points. “He told us to stay focused and poised because the game wasn’t over until the clock expired.”

This game was over when the clock expired at the end of the first quarter.

Romulus trailed, 36-18, at halftime, then allowed Mercy to score the first 22 points of the third quarter as it committed 13 turnovers.

“The girls didn’t handle it well,” Romulus coach Herb Buckley said. “Everybody I put in was just throwing the ball away. I think it might have had something to do with the quarterfinals. Their nerves were bad. We couldn’t get into our sets. Everybody was just running wild.”

That could be said for Mercy, too, which kept forcing turnover after turnover no matter who was on the court.

“We went on a great run and we never looked back,” said Mercy’s Candice Leatherwood, who scored 18. “We just wanted to keep up the pressure, and obviously our pressure bothered them. We just stayed with it and didn’t back off at all.”

Mercy coach Gary Morris said he thought Romulus could be susceptible to pressure defense, but this was a coach’s dream.

“We had seen signs,” Morris said. “In their last game against Southgate, they were up 21 and then Southgate came all the way back and got within two. We thought maybe we could bother them with pressure, but certainly not like that.”

Mercy celebrated for about 35 seconds after the game before the players began thinking about Marian, which might feel like it owes Mercy something, especially after the way the Marlins won the last game — a Jones steal of an inbounds pass and a lay-up at the buzzer.

“They can think it,” Jones said, “but honestly, we have all the people we need, and I think we can give them a run for their money.”